A police officer Friday shot an ex-lawmaker and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Opeyemi Bamidele and a yet to be identified person as the candidate of the party, Dr Kayode Fayemi began the rally for the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State.

The rally which attracted large crowd of party supporters and admirers across the state started on a good note from Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State before it turned soar.

The Governor of Ondo State, Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu, Fayemi and former Minister of Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who were in the long convoy of vehicles, had gone up to greet party leaders at the party leaders at the APC secretariat at Ajilosun area of Ado Ekiti and were descending the stair case when the policeman suddenly released several bullets to scare the people.

The police was trying to protect the dignitaries from being mobbed by those who were trying to extort money from them when the policeman misfired the gunshot that hit Bamidele on the hand and the other person in the chest.

It was gathered that the hangers-on had struggled with the policeman before he lost control and shot sporadically in the wrong
direction.

Bamidele was hurriedly hauled into the car conveying Ondo State governor and taken to the hospital while the other victim fell on the ground and people suspected that he must have died.

The angry party men disarmed the policeman and descended on him and smashed his head with sticks and other dangerous weapons before being rescued and taken to a safe custody.

This incident caused serious melee at Mobil area as people had to scamper for safety in different directions to prevent being hit by bullets.

However, Fayemi and his entourage were received in Ikere Ekiti by long convoy of vehicles and large crowd of party supporters, which
caused serious traffic snarl along Ado –Akure road.

Before the crisis, Akeredolu and Fayemi while addressing party members, said he had come home to rescue Ekiti from the pangs of poverty and wanton neglect caused by the PDP administration.

Akeredolu applauded the party members for putting behind them the post primary crisis, saying with the crowd he saw today that Ekiti remained the stronghold of the APC.

“Fayemi has returned with full force to reclaim the land. He needs your support and this task shall be achieved in the mighty name of God”, he prayed.

In his response, Fayemi said: “We are here to work for Ekiti and our party leaders and this we are going to do together because it is a collective responsibility”.

Tactically referring to the just defected former Minister, Adeyeye, Fayemi said: “We are going to work with everybody, including those who just decamped to our party, because we are one big family in APC.

“We shall win by the grace of God. Our case was like the case of a ram who moved backward to garner more strength. We are here to rescue Ekiti and it is a task we must achieve”.

In his contributions, Adeyeye, who returned to the party on Tuesday after twelve years in the PDP, said: “I have returned home and my mission is to ensure that we killed Fayose politically by burying him.

“We shall mobilize well to achieve this task and by the grace of God , this is a must-win and must accomplished task for all of us”, he added.